Islamabad:
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has rejected reports that its chief Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha will be stepping down or that he is on a trip to Washington.
Earlier, several media reports said Pasha had left for Washington to meet CIA chief Leon Panetta and is expected to explain Pakistan's position on the presence of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the country before he was killed in a US raid on May 2.
It was also reported that Pasha may step down in the wake of widespread criticism of the Pakistani establishment over US Special Forces killing Osama near a key military facility in the garrison city of Abbottabad.
"Pasha may quit as the Pakistan government looks for a fall guy for the bin Laden debacle", unnamed senior officials were quoted as saying by 'The Daily Beast', a news website affiliated to Newsweek magazine.
The senior officials said "they recognise that an important head has to roll and soon" to allay domestic and international anger over bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, located close to the federal capital of Islamabad.
The officials said the "most likely candidate to be the fall guy is Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha". They said it was "nearly a done deal". Pakistani analysts with close connections to the military agreed. "It would make a lot of sense...It's in his (Pasha's) personal and the national interest to take the heat off," said Lt Gen (retired) Talat Masood, one of Pakistan's leading defence analysts.
An official statement issued after a meeting of Corps Commanders chaired by Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the military admitted its "own shortcomings in developing intelligence on the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan".
It added that "an investigation has been ordered into the circumstances that led to this situation".
The Daily Beast reported that Pakistanis were furious that the ISI and the powerful military, which control national security policy, "could have been so incompetent not to know that the Al Qaeda leader was comfortably holed up in Abbottabad", only 80 km north of Islamabad.
"Never before have the military and the ISI come under such criticism," said Masood.
People are angry that the military, which gets the lion's share of the budget, could be totally unaware that US helicopters had violated Pakistani airspace during the raid that killed bin Laden on Monday.
Pakistani officials, both from the civilian government and the military, have said the US did not inform them about the raid.
"People are outraged...They see this as the fault of the military in which they have invested so much trust," Masood was quoted as saying.
However, a senior ISI officer told The Daily Beast he could not confirm the report and he had no knowledge of Pasha being "pressured into resigning".
The media reports about Pasha's possible stepping down were followed by rebuttals. Pakistan envoy to US, Husain Haqqani, tweeted, "No honourable officer or public servant will be made a scapegoat over Osama bin Laden being found in Pakistan. The circumstances will be fully examined."
"Ascertaining responsibility over who dropped the ball, how and why should precede demanding or spreading rumours about resignation of individuals," he added. (With PTI Inputs)
Earlier, several media reports said Pasha had left for Washington to meet CIA chief Leon Panetta and is expected to explain Pakistan's position on the presence of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the country before he was killed in a US raid on May 2.
It was also reported that Pasha may step down in the wake of widespread criticism of the Pakistani establishment over US Special Forces killing Osama near a key military facility in the garrison city of Abbottabad.
"Pasha may quit as the Pakistan government looks for a fall guy for the bin Laden debacle", unnamed senior officials were quoted as saying by 'The Daily Beast', a news website affiliated to Newsweek magazine.
The senior officials said "they recognise that an important head has to roll and soon" to allay domestic and international anger over bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, located close to the federal capital of Islamabad.
The officials said the "most likely candidate to be the fall guy is Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha". They said it was "nearly a done deal". Pakistani analysts with close connections to the military agreed. "It would make a lot of sense...It's in his (Pasha's) personal and the national interest to take the heat off," said Lt Gen (retired) Talat Masood, one of Pakistan's leading defence analysts.
An official statement issued after a meeting of Corps Commanders chaired by Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the military admitted its "own shortcomings in developing intelligence on the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan".
It added that "an investigation has been ordered into the circumstances that led to this situation".
The Daily Beast reported that Pakistanis were furious that the ISI and the powerful military, which control national security policy, "could have been so incompetent not to know that the Al Qaeda leader was comfortably holed up in Abbottabad", only 80 km north of Islamabad.
"Never before have the military and the ISI come under such criticism," said Masood.
People are angry that the military, which gets the lion's share of the budget, could be totally unaware that US helicopters had violated Pakistani airspace during the raid that killed bin Laden on Monday.
Pakistani officials, both from the civilian government and the military, have said the US did not inform them about the raid.
"People are outraged...They see this as the fault of the military in which they have invested so much trust," Masood was quoted as saying.
However, a senior ISI officer told The Daily Beast he could not confirm the report and he had no knowledge of Pasha being "pressured into resigning".
The media reports about Pasha's possible stepping down were followed by rebuttals. Pakistan envoy to US, Husain Haqqani, tweeted, "No honourable officer or public servant will be made a scapegoat over Osama bin Laden being found in Pakistan. The circumstances will be fully examined."
"Ascertaining responsibility over who dropped the ball, how and why should precede demanding or spreading rumours about resignation of individuals," he added. (With PTI Inputs)
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